Welcome to VANWIJST.COM! As of February 2009 this site should be 100% up and running again! The one exception is the Forum. While up and running, it is closed to new users due to the high incidence of spamming. If you want to contribute send me an e-mail (com dot vanwijst at alex, in reverse) and I'll enable an account for you.

This site is all about my various and diverse interests. Well, at least the ones I care to share with the world. What you won't find around here is blathery blogging, items for sale or material poached from other, more interesting sites. What you will find is wittily documented episodes of my personal and family history, experiments and creative ventures. You might get a chuckle out of the site, or you might learn something, or you might even be inspired to try something I've tried, just to show me up. There's an interactive forum where you can give me feedback about the site, say hello, or just leave your mark on the internet.

March 15, 2012: The 2011 Easter Egg Competition results are finally posted on the People Page

May 28, 2010: The 2010 Easter Egg Competition results are now posted on the People Page

November 7, 2009: A slideshow of our Maritimes trip has finally been added to the Adventures Page

July 25, 2009: This year's Easter Egg Competition is added to the People Page

December 5, 2008: A little Flash programming and a little daughter combine into a pint sized slideshow on the People Page

Various other stuff, that really isn't new anymore....

A Small Animation

Recent Reads

Progress Report

An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power.by John Steele Gordon I would not have purchased this book but for the laws of supply and demand: it was regularly $37 but marked down to just $7 in the discount bin of my local independent book seller. It was actually a surpisingly good book, well researched and quite readable. The narrative follows the economic development of the early colonies through the Revolution and to the new millenium, from Virginia's tobacco boom and the Carolina's rice industry to New England shipbuilding and New York's rise to financial suppremacy. Whaling, cotton, railroads and oil: they're all there. I particularly liked the case studies of the herculanean inventors and small-timers making their fortunes in the nineteenth century. The twentieth century was more about government policy (yawn), but overall it was an interesting read.Click Here for Other Recent Reads...